By Marjory Inglis, health reporter

A FORMER Dundee psychiatrist who obtained crack cocaine for a patient and an undercover police officer is facing further proceedings from his professional licensing body.

Dr Philip Alan Barker (74) has previously been treated in a specialist rehabilitation unit for cocaine addiction.

He was due to have his case considered earlier this month by the General Medical Council, the body that licenses doctors to practise in the UK.

A spokeswoman for the GMC said yesterday the hearing was adjourned due to Dr Barker being unwell and was rescheduled for April 24.

His registration was previously suspended and that suspension was due to expire on February 8. The spokeswoman said the suspension had been extended for three months beyond February 8.

A GMC fitness-to-practise panel previously suspended Dr Barker after he admitted obtaining crack cocaine from a drugs dealer in Canada and passing two “rocks,” weighing 1.5 grams, to a patient and an undercover police officer in a Calgary hotel.

The incident occurred in February 2000 and the GMC has been involved in his case since then. But it was not until last year that the GMC found Dr Barker guilty of “serious professional misconduct” and suspended his registration.

Dr Barker appeared in person before the fitness-to-practise panel in London last January and admitted he had been treated for cocaine addiction in the 1980s. He also admitted obtaining work in this country without disclosing his previous cocaine addiction.

The panel accepted he was under pressure to obtain drugs during the incident in Canada in February 2000.

The panel considered erasing his name from the register but it felt that there were mitigating circumstances in the facts of the case which would make that course of action disproportionate, due to the time lapsed since the offences, the fact that Dr Barker had shown insight into his behaviour, the testimonials to his “excellent clinical practice,” and that there was no evidence of repetition since the incident.

Dr Barker established specialist child psychiatry services in Dundee 40 years ago and was a prominent child psychiatrist who was well known on the international conference circuit. He has also published many books and articles in journals.

He was formerly head of psychiatry at Alberta Children’s Hospital and an emeritus professor in the department of psychiatry at Calgary University.

Dr Barker was responsible for planning and building the department of child psychiatry at the former Dundee Royal Infirmary. When he first arrived in Dundee in the 1960s there was no specialist service and children were seen by psychiatrists used to treating adults.